


Separated

by onward_came_the_meteors



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Angst and Humor, Brothers, Childhood, Family Feels, Gen, Hogwarts, Not Canon Compliant, One Shot, POV Third Person, Ratings: PG, Sad, Time Skips, What-If
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-21
Updated: 2019-12-21
Packaged: 2021-02-25 23:47:42
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,564
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21794023
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/onward_came_the_meteors/pseuds/onward_came_the_meteors
Summary: Everyone knows the Weasley twins are identical.But what if they were literally inseparable?A story spanning from childhood to the Battle of Hogwarts.
Comments: 4
Kudos: 12





	Separated

If you spend enough time in the wizarding world, one thing you notice is that Fred and George Weasley never seem to be apart. They are always together, every minute of every day. Many people would just shrug this off as brotherly closeness and not give it too much thought. No one, in fact, seems to think that there might be something more to it.

But there is a deeper reason, a reason that it much more powerful and deadly.

Like many other evil stories, it would be assumed that it started with Voldemort. But not in this case. It started, as a matter of fact, with one of his Death Eaters.

His name? Well, no one really seems to remember his name, do they? With no family, friends, or neighbors with a beard to recognize him, this Death Eater remained unknown by many, if not all, of the others. It has been said that not even Voldemort himself knew who he was. This is ridiculous, of course, given Voldemort’s talent for Legilimency. The truth was that nobody seemed to care about who he was or where he came from.

And in fact, this was because those details were highly boring and regular. This Death Eater went to Hogwarts at age eleven, was predictably sorted into Slytherin, and proceeded to be unnoticed by many of his fellow students. He never strived to make friends or enemies. He did average to above average work in his classes. He was, in short, a completely normal person with a completely normal life (for a wizard, anyway).

After he left school, he dedicated his life to the discovery of new spells and curses. Nobody cared about this, of course, because nobody bothered to recognize his existence. He was fine with that. That meant nobody could bother him, and that sounded great. 

Due to Slytherin cunning, however, he soon became very proficient in mastering these Dark spells of which he’d been inventing. This caught the attention of Voldemort, who at that time was preparing for his first rise to power. Happily, our unnamed Slytherin joined the Death Eaters, for they provided him with the opportunity to practice more refined forms of his type of curses (also the help of fellow Death Eater and inventor of new spells Severus Snape).

But all this is just backstory. One day, this Death Eater came up with a particularly evil new spell. He was very excited by this of course, and hastened to tell his master, the Dark Lord. Sadly and predictably, the Dark Lord did not care.

More than a little upset, the Death Eater went to some of the other Death Eaters for help. He wanted to prove to Voldemort that his spell could be useful, and so he required test subjects. Two of them, to be precise. And it would be useful if they were children, so he could observe the long-term effects of his spell without them attacking him back. Children were no threat (that was what the Death Eaters commonly believed back then, before their master was defeated by a baby).

One of the other Death Eaters, a man named Lucius Malfoy, suggested the Weasleys.

“That family has so many children that the parents couldn’t possibly notice,” he said in his typical drawling voice.

The Death Eater suspected that this suggestion was more about Malfoy’s rivalry with the Weasleys than actual strategy, but he wasn’t going to argue.

That night, the Burrow got an unexpected visitor.

Sneaking through the window was surprisingly easy in the middle of the night. The parents were asleep. This could all be done quietly if he hurried.

The Death Eater pulled himself the rest of the way through the window and into the bedroom of the two youngest Weasleys. Twin boys, asleep in their cribs. Even as babies, the beginnings of red hair could be seen on their heads as they slept, calmly, not knowing what was about to happen.

The Death Eater raised his wand and pointed it at the babies. It wasn’t something he’d ever done before, but, hey, Death Eaters had no regrets. At least this one didn’t. 

He muttered his spell, watching in nervous triumph as a beam of red-orange light burst from his wand-tip, split in half, and hit the two babies, one half to each one.

The twins both started and woke up at once. One of them started to cry, which would wake up their mother soon enough, but the Death Eater was already gone.

The Death Eater had never told anyone what his spell did, except Voldemort, who didn’t see the point of telling anyone else. And the Death Eater himself died from a well-placed curse by the Auror Mad-Eye Moody shortly afterwards. Meaning no one else ever knew about the curse.

But the Weasleys would figure it out soon enough.

The next morning, Mrs Weasley woke up, as usual, by the sound of a baby crying. She sighed. It had only been a few hours since she’d gone back to sleep! Being a mother was hard, hard work indeed.

As she entered the room, she saw no signs that anything was wrong. One of the twins (she thought it was Fred) was crying, having realized that his mother was not in the vicinity. Once she came into view however, he stopped. His mother picked up baby Fred (for Fred it was) and proceeded to carry him downstairs. Holding two babies at once was a lot of work, so Mrs Weasley planned to take two trips.

But she didn’t get much farther than the second stair when a high-pitched wailing came from inside the room. Mrs Weasley hurried back up and inside the babies’ room she found George, who had somehow gotten his hand stuck between the bars of his crib, crying. Mrs Weasley removed his hand quickly enough, ending up with two twins in one crib as she did so. She scooped up one of them (it was George this time) and started to carry him downstairs. This time she had only reached the top stair when Fred started crying. She rushed back in and found that the baby had somehow fallen out of his crib onto the floor.

By now, Mrs Weasley had decided that she might as well carry them both downstairs at the same time. It would be difficult, but these twins didn’t seem capable of being left alone for a minute.

Once in the kitchen, she placed the twins in their high chairs and they babbled happily to each other while she made breakfast. Soon enough, the rest of the family came downstairs and chaos ensued. Charlie and Bill chased each other around, squabbling over ownership of an old toy broomstick, and their toddler, Percy, was busily trying to paint the wall with an assortment of breakfast food. It was a typical day for a while, until, as happens with babies, one of the twins was in need of a diaper change. Mrs Weasley picked him up and went to go into the other room to the changing table, but as soon as she tried to do so, the other twin started to shriek. The milk in his bottle was apparently too hot and was burning his mouth, although Mrs Weasley could swear that she’d checked the temperature of it beforehand and it was fine.

For a while, at least, no one noticed the strange behavior of the two youngest Weasleys. For even longer, no one thought that it was strange. It was only when they were no longer the youngest Weasleys when their parents became suspicious.

Fred and George were now four years old, and the older brother to Ron, and to Ginny, the baby. The two of them had actually figured out soon enough what was going on, but they weren’t sure how to tell their parents about it.

It was a spring cleaning day at the Burrow, which always inevitably turned into all the kids getting kicked out of the house while Mrs Weasley did everything, but they were making an effort to actually help this time. Bill was already at Hogwarts by this point, but Charlie, Percy, and the twins were all expected to help with the spring cleaning of pointlessness.

“Okay, everyone please try to be quiet, Ron and Ginny are taking a nap, so Charlie, you clean up the living room, Percy can pick up those toys that are all over the hallway, Fred, could you go get that box that’s upstairs, and George can help me with the dishes.” Mrs Weasley announced, a long string of requests that weren't meant to be taken as anything but orders.

Charlie and Percy grumped away, but Fred and George just stared at each other.

“But…” Fred started. He didn't know how to finish. He was only four, and this was a very hard thing to explain, not least because he and George didn't fully understand it themselves.

Fred looked at George helplessly. George just shrugged and started to follow their mother into the kitchen. Fred nervously took a step away from his twin. Nothing….another step….nothing….

George disappeared into the kitchen just as Fred began to climb the stairs. It happened all of a sudden. He tripped, fell, and hit his shoulder painfully against the stair railing.

“Ow!” 

George ran back out of the kitchen, and Fred immediately felt better. He was followed by Mrs Weasley, who started fussing over him. One thing about having an overprotective mother is that it can get very annoying after a while, and it severely limits potential for mischief. Fred and George both knew this, and therefore weren't sure if they should tell their mother or not.

“I just can't understand why you two keep getting hurt whenever we leave you alone! Bill and Charlie and Percy weren't like this, honestly, you're never hurt when you're together, I just don't understand-" Mrs Weasley rambled, and then suddenly stopped. Her twin sons were standing in front of her, quietly for once.

“Being apart hurts.” George tried to explain. 

“We just have to be with each other.” Fred continued. “When we aren't-"

“Then we get hurt.” George finished. Both twins looked at their mother with a serious expression, one of the very, very, few times they would ever do that.

......................

The rest of the Weasleys loved the twins, because they were the hilarious little troublemakers. You never saw one without the other. And that was how it apparently had to stay. Mr and Mrs Weasley tried to find a solution to their sons’ curse, but obviously couldn't find one, as it had been an illegal experiment, and no one even knew what it was.

So Fred and George came up with the relatively basic solution of simply sticking together at all times. Otherwise, well, one of them would get hurt. They figured out quickly that the longer one twin was away from the other, the more severe the injury would be. Only one twin got hurt at a time, but it wasn't very predictable how it switched back and forth. It might be Fred, then George, then George, then Fred, then George, then Fred, Fred, Fred, George, Fred, George, George, and so on.

The twins managed, for eleven years, to stay as close together as they could. This didn't bother them like it would some people, because they were so close anyway. 

They already looked identical. Now because of the curse their lives had to be identical as well. 

.........................

Their first year boarding the Hogwarts Express arrived in a blaze of autumn leaves and letters. Mrs Weasley, who had become much more protective of the twins for obvious reasons, cried when they got onto the train. Ron and Ginny just looked grumpy, which was understandable, as they were now stuck in the house with just each other for company.

Once at Hogwarts, Fred Weasley’s name was called second to last at the Sorting. George went up instead, and fooled Charlie and Percy, who were watching the Sorting from their spot at the Gryffindor table, but didn't fool the Sorting Hat.

“This is George Weasley, not Fred Weasley, and I already have an idea of which House you two should be in, but I will wait until the real Fred comes up here!”

The real Fred came up and was sorted into Gryffindor, predictably. He waited, however, for George to be sorted before the twins made their way to the Gryffindor table together. There they got a scolding from Percy and a “Nice one!” from Charlie. 

..............................

Hogwarts, to be put in the most basic terms possible, was not prepared for the Weasley twins.

“What is that noise coming from that dormitory?”

“Why are all the owls wearing party hats?”

“Is the lake supposed to be orange?”

“Why are those two boys jumping from staircase to staircase yelling about lava?”

“Why has Gryffindor lost 38 points in the past five minutes?”

“What is that giant squid doing in the Great Hall?”

Needless to say, it was a safe assumption that the twins weren't quite following the example of their older brothers. Much to their teachers' chagrin, they would be leaving their own legacy.

Yes, Fred and George had lots of fun at school. They'd found a new friend, Lee Jordan, and in their second year they became Beaters on the Gryffindor team. Charlie enjoyed this because he was their Quidditch Captain and therefore the sport had become a lot more fun. Percy, tragically, did not.

“There's mud everywhere, what have you been doing!”

“Quidditch!”

“But you're getting it on my homework!”

“Maybe you should work in your dormitory instead of the common room.”

“BUT OLIVER WOOD IS IN THERE AND YOU KNOW THAT'S WORSE!”

“Someone say Quidditch?”

“JUST KILL ME NOW.”

Then their little brother Ron came to school, as well as Harry Potter, and we all know THAT got interesting.

Fred and George at least never had to worry about being separated by one of them becoming a prefect because they knew that would never happen. Everyone knew that except their mother. 

"So when are we going to break it to her?" 

"...best to let her figure it out on her own." 

"Agreed." 

....................

The Yule Ball was the next thing the twins had to navigate. Fred had a date. George did not. Fred would therefore be in the Great Hall, away from George. 

“I'll just come too.”

“I can't take my brother to a dance!”

“You're going to have to.”

“What's Angelina going to think?”

“I'll just hang around nearby, I swear I won't say a single word to either of you all night.”

“You're going to follow us around and tease the heck out of me aren't you.”

“Obviously.”

“We need to get you some hobbies.”

George did end up going to the Yule Ball by himself, but actually had fun anyway. He just had to make sure he stayed close enough to his brother. After all, the Great Hall was a big room.

.......................

Seventh year. Planning their careers for when they left school. It was obvious, though, that they needed to have the same career. Partly why they wanted to make their own shop. They just had to convince their mother about that. Fortunately, the fact that the twins were joke-shop geniuses, coupled with the fact that there was no way Hogwarts was letting them back in after they'd escaped on brooms, convinced her pretty quickly.

The next problem occurred two years later. The Order of the Phoenix needed a way to transport Harry away from Privet Drive without using magic. Moody came up with the brilliant idea of having seven Harry Potters fly out at once as decoys. The Order had limited members by that point, and they needed fourteen people, including Harry himself, to volunteer. Fred and George didn't hesitate.

Even if it meant they would be on two separate brooms, miles away from each other for the first time in their lives.

It'll be fine, Fred thought to himself. George and I haven't been apart for years. There's a chance nothing will happen.

Still, both twins were nervous. So they dealt with it in a predictable Weasley twin way: being as loud and joking as possible. In their opinion, that was always the best method of handling stress, although for some strange reason, others didn't seem to agree.

“Imagine if something went wrong and we were stuck as specky, scrawny gits forever.”

“Yeah, thirteen of us against one bloke who's not allowed to use magic, we've got no chance.”

“Wow. We're identical.”

“Can't you even tell us apart when we're Harry?”

Their father, Bill, and Ron didn't seem to realize that they were being overly humorous on purpose to try and ease the tension.

Of course, Bill and Ron didn't even know about the twin’s curse. Only their parents knew, and they'd made the decision years ago to keep it to themselves.

Everyone drank the Polyjuice Potion, turned into exact replicas of Harry, and went to board their broom/thestral/motorcycle.

Fred would be with his father, and George would be with Lupin. Whatever was about to happen to them, they only hoped it wouldn't affect either of the men.

As George mounted his broomstick, he remembered what Moody had said. They were all prepared to take the risk. 

The Order lifted off into the air.

.........................

“Sectumsempra!”

Severus Snape was clutching a wand and aiming it directly at the Death Eater next to him, who was trying to kill Lupin.

His spell missed, which wasn't normal for him, a very accomplished dueler, but Snape simply assumed it was because of the chaos of trying to fire spells in midair.

It wasn't.

George, covered in blood and missing an ear, knew that much even as he felt himself slipping off the broom. Everything was going dark. Dimly he felt aware of Lupin reaching toward him, trying to keep him on the broomstick.

The next thing he knew, he was lying on the couch at the Burrow.

.............................

Strange, how Arthur Weasley knew that George was injured even before he arrived back.

“I'll prove who I am, Kingsley, after I've seen my son, now back off if you know what's good for you!”

Kingsley, like everyone else, simply assumed that Mr Weasley had seen his son’s injury during the flight.

Fred dashed into the room as well, pale and anxious, knowing that because he wasn't hurt was a sign that his brother was…

Strange too, how George only regained consciousness after his brother returned.

Many strange things surrounded the twins, but nobody realized it.

.........................

The Battle of Hogwarts was beginning, and Fred and George knew that it would be impossible to stay together through it.

“It's not like we have a choice,” George was saying.

“We could still try…?” Fred suggested halfheartedly, staring at the empty hole where his twin’s ear used to be. He didn't want anything like that to happen again. Would it be George again, or would it be him?

The two of them made jokes about the missing ear, but nobody realized that it was because they were trying to make it seem like a normal thing. Just an errant spell from Snape. Nothing more. Definitely nothing that could happen again, or worse, if the two were to separate. 

“Fred, we have to do this. What do you suggest, we sit in the Room of Requirement with Ginny and do nothing?”

It was true. They were adults now. They were Gryffindors. They were Weasleys. Hiding from a fight wasn't their thing.

Fred and George met each other's eyes.

“If we’re going to get hurt, we're making sure the same thing happens to the Death Eaters, and Voldemort if we can,” Fred finally said.

The twins were sitting in the Great Hall when it happened.

“I know that you are preparing to fight....”

..................

They didn’t mean to separate, but it happened all of a sudden. Death Eaters swarmed into the castle, shrieks and spells started echoing off the walls, people running, desperate, frantic. And then Fred was there, next to his brother, and then he wasn’t.

George took a deep breath and charged into the chaos, brandishing his wand alone.

Everyone there was filled with fear, but none of it came close to the twins’ that night. Even as George yelled out spells and dashed around the school, a part of his mind was scanning himself for injuries, scared to death when he found none.

What was happening to Fred?

Would either of them live through this battle?

....................

“You really are joking, Perce! I don’t think I’ve heard you joke since you were-”

.......................

At the moment of Fred’s death, the curse was broken.

But George felt that he would rather live his whole life under its burden than a life without his brother.

He could be without him now without being hurt… at least physically. But the pain was far worse now.

George couldn’t even look in the mirror anymore. People who hadn’t heard the news kept accidentally calling him “Fred”. Every so often he would begin a sentence without thinking and wait futilely for someone to finish it.

Only one twin was left of the formerly inseparable bond.

....................

Fred Weasley woke up, surrounded by blank white space that looked strangely familiar.

“Is this King’s Cross Station?”

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks for reading!


End file.
